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South Carolina Gunman to plead guilty of committing church massacre

Xinhua, March 31, 2017 Adjust font size:

A gunman who killed nine people in a South Carolina church in 2015 will plead guilty to murder charges next month, attorneys said Friday.

Dylann Roof, who has been convicted of murder and hate crimes, will be given a life sentence in exchange for his plea, instead of the death sentence he was given in January, Scarlett Wilson, a prosecutor involved in his case said in a letter.

The plea will mean that the plaintiffs will be spared from a second wound-tearing death-penalty trial.

The update was confirmed by Ashley Pennington, Roof's defending attorney.

Nine people were killed in the evening of June 17, 2015 at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina in what the authorities described as "a hate crime" by a white gunman, later identified as Roof. Enditem